Spatial Skills and Success in Engineering Education: A Case for Investigating Etiological Underpinnings

One of the most consistent findings within engineering education research is the relationship between spatial skills achievement and success within STEM disciplines. A critical dearth in this research area surrounds the question of causality within this known relationship. Investigating the etiological underpinnings of the association of spatial skills development to success in engineering education is a contemporary research agenda and possesses significant implications for future practice. This paper presents a starting point through a review of some of the pertinent literature to consider this current agenda

The Link between Spatial Skills and Engineering Problem-Solving

Well-developed 3-D spatial skills are correlated with engineering success. However, most studies examining the link between spatial skills and engineering success have been conducted at the macro level, i.e., the link between spatial skills and course grades or between spatial skills and graduation rates. In this research, a more refined approach has been taken. Relationships between spatial skills and success in solving certain types of problems that engineering students commonly encounter are examined. It was found that high levels of spatial skills predict success in solving certain types of engineering problems but not in all types of problems. Data gathered through this research will be further analyzed to determine characteristics of problems where spatial skills appear to play a role and characteristics where they do not

Novel and Speciality Cheeses - Broadening the National Cheese Base

End of Project ReportThe Irish dairy industry is considered vulnerable to the price pressures of the commodity market, on which it is highly dependent. Hence, a broadening of the product base, would reduce exposure to this market while offering the potential of exploiting the lucrative added value market. This involves risks and challenges. The cheese market in particular continues to grow and investment in innovative products have in some cases been highly successful. However, a number of obstacles confront Irish cheese manufacturers. These include: seasonality of milk supply, strong tradition of Cheddar production, knowledge gaps in industrial-scale specialty cheese manufacture, and a reticence to commit significant investment, particularly in plant. To address some of these obstacles a project was undertaken with the overall objective of developing a range of cheeses with novel flavour, texture and appearance which were complementary to existing manufacturing plant and technologies. The project was built on the knowledge, skills base and flexible cheese manufacturing plant developed in a previous study (see DPRC Report No. 9), and had the following specific objectives: * assess consumer preferences, * develop a range of novel cheeses capable of being manufactured wholly, or in part, on existing plant, * determine the effects of manipulation of process variables on novel hybrid composition and ripening, * assess market potential and consumer reaction to selected cheeses, * determine the relationships between cheese composition and sensory characteristics, and * present product options to Irish industry.Department of Agriculture, Food and the MArin

Novel and Speciality Cheeses - Broadening the National Cheese Base

End of Project ReportThe Irish dairy industry is considered vulnerable to the price pressures of the commodity market, on which it is highly dependent. Hence, a broadening of the product base, would reduce exposure to this market while offering the potential of exploiting the lucrative added value market. This involves risks and challenges. The cheese market in particular continues to grow and investment in innovative products have in some cases been highly successful. However, a number of obstacles confront Irish cheese manufacturers. These include: seasonality of milk supply, strong tradition of Cheddar production, knowledge gaps in industrial-scale specialty cheese manufacture, and a reticence to commit significant investment, particularly in plant. To address some of these obstacles a project was undertaken with the overall objective of developing a range of cheeses with novel flavour, texture and appearance which were complementary to existing manufacturing plant and technologies. The project was built on the knowledge, skills base and flexible cheese manufacturing plant developed in a previous study (see DPRC Report No. 9), and had the following specific objectives: * assess consumer preferences, * develop a range of novel cheeses capable of being manufactured wholly, or in part, on existing plant, * determine the effects of manipulation of process variables on novel hybrid composition and ripening, * assess market potential and consumer reaction to selected cheeses, * determine the relationships between cheese composition and sensory characteristics, and * present product options to Irish industry.Department of Agriculture, Food and the MArin

SEIS: Insight’s Seismic Experiment for Internal Structure of Mars

By the end of 2018, 42 years after the landing of the two Viking seismometers on Mars, InSight will deploy onto Mars’ surface the SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Internal Structure) instrument; a six-axes seismometer equipped with both a long-period three-axes Very Broad Band (VBB) instrument and a three-axes short-period (SP) instrument. These six sensors will cover a broad range of the seismic bandwidth, from 0.01 Hz to 50 Hz, with possible extension to longer periods. Data will be transmitted in the form of three continuous VBB components at 2 sample per second (sps), an estimation of the short period energy content from the SP at 1 sps and a continuous compound VBB/SP vertical axis at 10 sps. The continuous streams will be augmented by requested event data with sample rates from 20 to 100 sps. SEIS will improve upon the existing resolution of Viking’s Mars seismic monitoring by a factor of ∼2500 at 1 Hz and ∼200000 at 0.1 Hz. An additional major improvement is that, contrary to Viking, the seismometers will be deployed via a robotic arm directly onto Mars’ surface and will be protected against temperature and wind by highly efficient thermal and wind shielding. Based on existing knowledge of Mars, it is reasonable to infer a moment magnitude detection threshold of ∼3 at 40∘ epicentral distance and a potential to detect several tens of quakes and about five impacts per year. In this paper, we first describe the science goals of the experiment and the rationale used to define its requirements. We then provide a detailed description of the hardware, from the sensors to the deployment system and associated performance, including transfer functions of the seismic sensors and temperature sensors. We conclude by describing the experiment ground segment, including data processing services, outreach and education networks and provide a description of the format to be used for future data distribution